Mirrorless Instagram machine will run you $1,600-$1,700.

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Samsung's crazy mirrorless Android camera that we tried out in June finally has some official stats. The basic concept is a mirrorless camera with the back lopped off and replaced with an Android phone. The big selling point of this idea is that you can take pictures and directly upload them to Instagram or Facebook. It's a fairly serious semi-pro camera, with custom interchangeable lenses and a 20.3 megapixel APS-C sensor.

How much would you pay for something that is basically a Galaxy S3.5 and an NX20 camera glued together? Samsung is asking $1,599.99 for the body-only version or $1,699.99 for the body plus a 18-55 mm lens. The company has compiled a spec list, but keep in mind that this is for a camera and smartphone, so it's going to be pretty massive:

The highlights here are that the phone part runs Android 4.2 on an unknown 1.6Ghz quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM and a 4.8-inch 720p screen. That puts it somewhere in between the S4 and S3, depending on what the processor and GPU actually end up being. The most interesting choice is the replacement of the usual Samsung AMOLED screen with an IPS display, an admission that, yes, AMOLED color reproduction is wildly inaccurate. There doesn't seem to be any kind of mobile data connection option in this spec list, despite the version demoed in June having an LTE modem. Samsung is also promising a slew of Touchwiz photo features, like location-based photography spot recommendations, and special picture display modes.

The camera part has a 20.3MP sensor and is compatible with all 13 of Samsung's NX lenses. You can snap pictures at 8.6 FPS with a 1/6000 second shutter speed. The camera supports RAW, and Samsung even bundles in a copy of Adobe Lightroom.

The kicker to all of this is that the similar, smartphone-less Samsung NX20 camera can currently be had for under $600. Is having Android and a large touchscreen on your camera really worth an extra thousand dollars, or would you rather spend that money on a better camera or better lenses?

If you really, really hate manually uploading your photos, the Samsung Galaxy NX will be out sometime in October.

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Ron Amadeo
Ron is the Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he specializes in Android OS and Google products. He is always on the hunt for a new gadget and loves to rip things apart to see how they work. Emailron@arstechnica.com//Twitter@RonAmadeo

The omission of LTE is confusing at this price point, as a camera like this with 4G access would presumably be perfect for roving reporters, law enforcement and others who need/want to post high quality images directly to the web when away from a Wifi connection.

Edit: added "high quality" to draw a distinction between pictures posted directly from smartphones and the near-DSLR specs of this camera.

This seems to be designed for the person who wants every kind of gadget bolted on to one device "just because", and has more money than sense. GPS encoding and the ability to upload a photo directly are nice features that make sense. The ability to play and share music, get point-to-point directions, and play games makes little to no sense.

I can't imagine any "semi-serious" photographer whipping out their camera, saying "look at this! I can play Angry Birds!", and expect to still be considered a "semi-serious" photographer.

The omission of LTE is confusing at this price point, as a camera like this with 4G access would presumably be perfect for roving reporters, law enforcement and others who need/want to post high quality images directly to the web when away from a Wifi connection.

Edit: added "high quality" to draw a distinction between pictures posted directly from smartphones and the near-DSLR specs of this camera.

If only there was a really sweet phone that also had a really sweet camera.. something crazy like 41 megaxels. Then if it automatically uploaded the pictures you take to skydrive over 4G, that would be cool... oh if only there was a device like that..

That price really is pretty crazy. It's higher than any mirrorless system out there other than the Leica M, which is in a far different class altogether. There's really nothing that suggests the Galaxy NX justifies its abnormally high price, and it'll probably have serious usability issues due to its lack of physical buttons (you'll have to take the camera away from your eye and fiddle with the touchscreen to change any setting, and have fun doing that wearing gloves).

Quint: Tech pundits slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte... just delivered the camera. The NX camera. Eleven hundred engineers went into the water. Project went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first fanboi for about a half an hour. Apple. 230-pounder. You know how you know that when you're in the forums, Chief? You tell by looking from the neckbeard to the hipster shoes. What we didn't know, was our camera mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, fanbois come cruisin', so we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, it was kinda like old squares in the battle like you see in the calendar named "The Battle of Waterloo" and the idea was: fanboi comes to the nearest engineer, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the fanboi will go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that fanboi he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a fanboi... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living... until he flames ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The forums turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many fanbois, maybe a thousand. I know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday morning, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. COD player. Software engineer. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Anyway, we delivered the camera.

I would not spend $1600 of my own money on this. Computer tech, especially mobile devices, go obsolete too quickly to dump too much money into them. This may remain a relevant camera sensor and lens in the foreseeable future, but that android version will be old in less than a year (will you get an upgrade... no really will you? Who knows!) and the included smartphone hardware will be obsolete in about as long. What if Instagram change the API on their end, and there are no more software upgrades for this camera? What then? Like I said, quick obsolescence.

Everyone's already got a mobile computer in their pocket. These devices need to hook into that - not duplicate it!

What'd really be nice is an SLR that could access smartphone data and sensors (i.e. GPS) via bluetooth, and use the smartphone as a remote control/display while still working as a standalone SLR. Am I crazy to think that wouldn't be terribly complicated to do?

Everyone's already got a mobile computer in their pocket. These devices need to hook into that - not duplicate it!

What'd really be nice is an SLR that could access smartphone data and sensors (i.e. GPS) via bluetooth, and use the smartphone as a remote control/display while still working as a standalone SLR. Am I crazy to think that wouldn't be terribly complicated to do?

I was going to say the same thing. The answer to applying the smartphone revolution to the rest of the technology sectors is NOT to add a smartphone equivalent to every other device! It is to make your product compatible with/enhanced by the smartphone that people already have. I'm seeing this with car manufacturers, and now with cameras? Just sad. Companies need to invest in developing Personal Area Networks, and making my phone more useful by making everything else more dependent on it. At the very least, it would help drive the need for me to buy a new phone every year!

The omission of LTE is confusing at this price point, as a camera like this with 4G access would presumably be perfect for roving reporters, law enforcement and others who need/want to post high quality images directly to the web when away from a Wifi connection.

Edit: added "high quality" to draw a distinction between pictures posted directly from smartphones and the near-DSLR specs of this camera.

If only there was a really sweet phone that also had a really sweet camera.. something crazy like 41 megaxels. Then if it automatically uploaded the pictures you take to skydrive over 4G, that would be cool... oh if only there was a device like that..

I definitely agree that there are numerous smartphones with large megapixel ratings; what I was mostly referring to was the ability to utilize near-SLR quality lenses, which are not on the spec list for current smartphones, unless you count the numerous aftermarket lens mounts, at which point you are back into the multiple-devices territory of today, where you can certainly exceed all of the specifications of the Samsung Galaxy NX if you are willing to carry / juggle extra cards, mobile LTE access points, etc.

Everyone's already got a mobile computer in their pocket. These devices need to hook into that - not duplicate it!

What'd really be nice is an SLR that could access smartphone data and sensors (i.e. GPS) via bluetooth, and use the smartphone as a remote control/display while still working as a standalone SLR. Am I crazy to think that wouldn't be terribly complicated to do?

Well, you can do exactly that with a GoPro, and over WiFi to boot (in order to get father from the camera than you could with BT.)

Everyone's already got a mobile computer in their pocket. These devices need to hook into that - not duplicate it!

What'd really be nice is an SLR that could access smartphone data and sensors (i.e. GPS) via bluetooth, and use the smartphone as a remote control/display while still working as a standalone SLR. Am I crazy to think that wouldn't be terribly complicated to do?

It's pretty slick software, although it uses USB OTG cables not Bluetooth. If you have two Android devices you can set them up in a master/slave configuration that allows remote control over WiFi. Very fidgety, but possible.

I agree though. I could transfer files between my N95 and N810 tablet over BT years ago and it was drop-dead simple. Why 10 years later I STILL can't do that with a $1000 DSLR and $500 smartphone is beyond comprehension.

Even if the project was completely finished before they realized the final price, it would still cost less to throw it in a landfill than to manufacture, market, and distribute it to all five people that will buy one.

I got my hands on one of these when I was in Seoul last week. It felt pretty good in-hand, but It was rather weird having a whole smartphone essentially taped to the back of a camera. Still trying to figure out the non-camera ergonomics of it.

Still, it had a good, solid feel in-hand, like you would want with a DSLR.

Also, getting my hands on one made me realize that I was mistaken. This isn't intended to compete with the Lumia 1020 at all. It's far more focused on the Prosumer photog, and is a market above.

I would not spend $1600 of my own money on this. Computer tech, especially mobile devices, go obsolete too quickly to dump too much money into them. This may remain a relevant camera sensor and lens in the foreseeable future, but that android version will be old in less than a year (will you get an upgrade... no really will you? Who knows!) and the included smartphone hardware will be obsolete in about as long. What if Instagram change the API on their end, and there are no more software upgrades for this camera? What then? Like I said, quick obsolescence.

The upgrading is a very good point. With the proprietary drivers this thing must have, combined with the small chance of the XDA group getting a hold of one of these things, a Cyanogenmod version of a ROM seems really unlikely. Priority is usually given to the high volume devices anyway.

So it's not like you could root this thing, bypass Samsung, and load your own ROM.

And if Samsung only sells this thing in the thousands, they're unlikely to throw programmers at the job of updating the "slew of Touchwiz photo features" that would be needed to release a new version of Android.

I agree though. I could transfer files between my N95 and N810 tablet over BT years ago and it was drop-dead simple. Why 10 years later I STILL can't do that with a $1000 DSLR and $500 smartphone is beyond comprehension.

Well, using an Eye-Fi card this is really not an issue (and quite a bit faster than BT ever was). The Eye-Fi software on Android devices will even geotag photos on receiving them.

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What I would really like to know (even if I have no intentions to give up my 5D MkIII at all) is how firmware updates will work on this thing. Are camera firmware updates separate from Android updates, or will users have to live with camera bugs until an Android update comes out?

The whole idea of post processing on the camera just doesn't gel with me. We'talking post on a 20mp raw file here. You'll burn through your battery in a heartbeat. Even on my i7, dumping a 24mp raw into PhotoShop or lightroom turns it into a mini heater with fans kicking in overdrive.

as for jpeg editing... Is someone really going to spend well over a $1000 to shoot and process jpegs?

there's just so many things wrong with this camera concept. Its biggest being they haven't decided what exactly it is and the price is insane.

for that price you enter full frame territory. At that price, you can get a nex 7 with 24mp on sony's excellent sensor and have enough change to buy the premium Zeiss glass. Or a nex6 plus 2-3 glass. Or an omd with kit + panaleica glass etc...

there's so many options and configurations that will yield you a great photographic toolset for $1700 that it's mind boggling you'd buy this one camera for android with all the negatives of a hybrid like this. This isn't an RX1 where its proposition is photographic achievement and engineering.

For the price of the body, I can get a Canon 6D or Nikon D600. Both have Wi-Fi and GPS, but most importantly, they have fullframe sensors of all things.

Damn right.

AFAIK Samsung has their own lens mount so you can't use other glass. As ounkeo said, there are many better alternatives for that price.

And finally, an almost touch-only interface on a "prosumer" camera is a little off-putting. Especially at that price. Adjusting shutter speed, aperture, ISO, focus selection via a touchscreen? fuggetaboutit

It is completely retarded that we have come to this. Who needs cell phone capabilities? Any photographer buff can tell you a certain level of manual control would be immensely helpful. Why is it taking so long to be able to do "programmed" shooting, such things as time-lapse with arbitrary shutter speed and lapse; tri-frame, quad-frame, heck abritary#-frame HDR, etc, noise subtraction due to read-out noise, pixel bias, arbitrary-length video, saving in arbitrary formats, remote shooting and remote view, etc. Even the Rasberry Pi is more powerful.

It's not rocket science. Now we will have some goon Android programmer "inventing" these ideas, when they weren't that difficult to begin with... aaaaarrrgh. Stupid marketing, lazy and complacent manufacturers, and ignorant customers.